Theun de Vries

Vries, Theun de 

(real name, Theunis Milke). Born Apr. 26, 1907, in Veenwouden. Dutch writer. Member of the Communist Party since 1936.

De Vries has written poetry, including the collections Western Nights (1930). He is the author of the novel Rembrandt (1931; Russian translation, 1956). In the two-part series consisting of Stepmother Earth (1936) and Wheel of Fortune (1938), he depicted the class struggle in the Netherlands at the turn of the century. During World War II he was imprisoned for his part in the resistance movement, which he dealt with in such works as the short-story collection The Boot (1945) and the novel The Redhaired Girl (1956; Russian translation, 1959).

De Vries has also published the satirical novel Shepherd, Kill the Wolves (1946), the trilogy Baptism of Fire (1948–54, published in honor of the centennial of the bourgeois Revolution of 1848 in the European countries), and the historical novel Motet for the Cardinal (1960). In such novels as Anna Casparii, or Tosca (1952) he depicted social and cultural life in the Netherlands in the first half of the 20th century.

From 1949 to 1963, de Vries was chairman of the Netherlands-USSR Society.

WORKS

Moergrobben. Amsterdam, 1964.
Het wolfsgetij. Amsterdam, 1965.
Doodskoppen en kaalkoppen. Amsterdam, 1966.

REFERENCES

Critisch bulletin, April 1952, pp. 167–70.
Krijtová, O. “Das revolutionäre Element in dem Werk von Theun de Vries.” In De Fsjerne, 22 [1967].